The New Power Party is calling on the government to take China to the WTO’s arbitration mechanism. That’s after China abruptly announced a ban on imports of Taiwanese pineapples, citing insects as the reason.
The party says the way in which China blocked imports of Taiwan’s pineapples goes against the spirit of the WTO’s sanitary and phytosanitary standards agreement, a treaty governing barriers member states can put in place on imports of food. The party also says that China should respect an agreement on the inspection of agricultural products that it signed with Taiwan.
At the same time, however, the party is urging the government to work towards diversifying the market for Taiwanese agricultural products in order to spread out risks to trade and to protect Taiwan’s farmers.